Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 16, 1994 TAG: 9403160158
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PARIS LENGTH: Medium
Now nearing 79 and riddled with cancer, Touvier was a key aide during World War II to Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie, the ``Butcher of Lyon.''
Technically, the trial concerns seven Jews who were lined up and shot on Touvier's orders 50 years ago on behalf of the pro-Nazi Vichy regime that ruled France during the Nazi occupation.
But the testimony expected over the next five weeks at the Versailles criminal court will go far beyond those June 29, 1944, executions in Rillieux-la-Pape, outside Leon.
It will provide an unprecedented forum for exploring the extent of French collaboration with Nazi Germany.
For the 45 years that preceded his arrest at a Roman Catholic priory in Nice in 1989, Touvier, his wife and two children moved from convent to monastery under assumed names.
The trial will focus on how a man condemned to death twice in absentia managed to elude authorities for so long, and why nearly 50 Roman Catholic institutions offered him financial aid and logistical support.
``If Touvier comes to trial only at this late date, it's because for decades he could manipulate and rely on the indulgence of two institutions that have long been synonymous with virtue: the Church and the courts,'' wrote journalist Bertrand le Gendre in the daily Le Monde. ``The trial in Versailles may well put them both in the dock.''
The trial will include testimony from three French premiers, several historians and representatives of Jewish and anti-Nazi French Resistance groups.
One of the historians, Rene Remond, headed an investigation into the case at the request of Cardinal Albert Decourtray, archbishop of Lyon. He concluded that Touvier was helped over the years by conservative and moderate church groups.
Touvier went underground in 1947 and emerged 20 years later, when the statute of limitations had expired.
In 1971, Premier Georges Pompidou pardoned Touvier at the behest of leading church officials.
But Resistance groups and Jewish survivors, outraged by the pardon, came forward with evidence to bring new charges. Again, Touvier disappeared, and was not found until police arrested him in 1989.
In April 1992, a controversial appellate court ruling cleared Touvier of six charges in the killing of Jews and Resistance leaders.
A higher court overruled the appeals court decision and brought new charges of crimes against humanity against Touvier for the seven Jews executed in 1944 to avenge the assassination of Vichy's zealous propaganda minister, Philippe Henriot.
by CNB